Re: Modernization

LOL, I'll agree that the learning curve is tremendous, but I fail to see how 
jumping to .net would aleviate that pressure.  The problem with changing 
paradigms is that we RPG programmers have tended to wall ourselves off from the 
"outside world", preferring to focus on delivering software in the same fashion 
we did twenty years ago.  We left ourselves behind, and now we must either 
embrace the new ways, or limp along with the old.  One approach opens new 
doors, the other closes them.....

IBM has perhaps given us too much in the WDSCi tooling.  I too use only a small 
portion of the available tooling, and am struggling to learn my way to the 
productivity gains IBM has promised.  However, I count this as MY deficiency, 
not IBM's, and continue to challenge my assumptions about software development 
and the tools I should use.  WDSCi lite goes a long way toward making the new 
tooling more useful to a broad range of programmers....  I expect to see an end 
to the DSPF/PRTF dilemma soon enough for it to not matter....  Bringing SOA 
into the bag of tricks might take a bit longer....

I'm not 40 yet (soon enough, though), so I don't have the luxury of retirement 
to buffer my career.  With 22 years of experience on this platform, I hope that 
I can stay with the System i family until that time arrives, but to do so 
requires me to forge ahead.  I must learn to think differently about 
architecture, about best practices and programming standards that improve the 
quality of software I write.  

later,
Eric